Return of The Dream

Prelude Exhibition:
Art Auction Malaysia

Exhibition Dates:

June 19–27:

Wisma Bentley Music
3, Jalan PJU 7/2, Mutiara Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Jul 3–7:

160, Anson Street, Penang
Note: After the exhibition in Penang, the artworks
will be brought back to Wisma Bentley,
Petaling Jaya.

An auction preview will be held
from Aug 1–7, and the actual auction on Aug
8. Public members interested to view the artworks
from Jul 8–31 will be by appointment only.
Call: 012-977 1022 or 03-2694 2212.

The Prelude to Art Auction Malaysia recently held at the Wisma Bentley Music, mopened with the unveiling of an unusual 1969 painting by world renowned art icon Datuk Ibrahim Hussein (1936-2009).

The Dream, acrylic on canvas measuring 121cm x 121cm, hails from brahim’s early vintage 1969-1970 period where he produced a series of breathtaking masterpieces such as Pak Utih, Chairil Anwar, My Father and The Astronaut, May 13, Are You Alone Out There? , Senyum Seorang Monyet, Aku Dan Aku and the missing Lebai Malang.

The smooth luminous strokes and colour palette are consistent with the artist’s metier then, but the comparative detail to what is ostensibly a feminine head is unusual. Collage strips were also incorporated in the central area. The Dream was first bought by Dutchman Casper Kamp, a United Nations officer, and his late wife, Ann around 1970. They had taken the painting all over the world wherever Kamp was posted to – the United States, several Asian countries and England.
Kamp said he personally knew Ibrahim. Kamp was even treated to a special viewing of his avant grade film, believed to be ‘Rolling Moments, USA’, shot with a 16mm cine camera during his stint in New York (1968-1969), where he held two solo exhibitions at the Newsweek

Gallery 10 and Galerie Internationale. The painting was sold through Cambridgebased auction house, Cheffins UK, in February last year to a private collector, and is now back in the country after nearly 40 years. The Dream is expected to set the auction record for a Malaysian painting, from its estimates of RM300,000 – RM400,000.

Art Auction Malaysia is organised by Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers Sdn Bhd, in close partnership with the National Art Gallery and Asia Pacific Brands Foundation. Following this preview and its week-long exhibition, over 80 exclusive works including a specially commissioned work from national art laureate Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal will be put on offer during the grand auction on Aug 8.

Formed in Oct 2008, Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers generally aims to promote Malaysian art. The company aspires to support Malaysian artists and to encourage art collection among Malaysians. The auction house also serves as an open platform for the trading of artworks to encourage greater transparency in the existing art market.

Also featured are unusual works by art pioneers, namely Datuk Chuah Thean Teng, Yong Mun Sen, Khaw Sia, Kuo Ju Ping, Lee Cheng Yong and Datuk Mohd Hoessein Enas.

I am always driven by movement. Every living thing moves, moving in space and in time. Human movements come in various forms, on the football playing field they move with great determination to overcome their opponents, in a conflict they move with hatred with the intention to kill, in love the lovers move with love to show zuriat.

Ibrahim Hussein, Datuk (1936-2009)
Fondly known as ‘Ib’, Ibrahim Hussein
was born in Kedah in 1936. He studied
in the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and
Painting, London from 1959-63, and the
Royal Academy, London from 1963-66.
Among the notable exhibitions held by
him were: an exhibition with Andy Warhol
and Salvador Dali in Kuwait (1977), and
‘Retrospective’, National Art Gallery, Kuala
Lumpur (1986). He had obtained triple
datukships, the Japan Foundation Cultural
Award (1981), Venezuela’s Order of Andres
Bello (1993), Chile’s Order of Bernardo O
Higgins (1996), World Economic Forum’s
Crystal Award (1997), and the Augerah
Tokoh Melayu Terbilang (2007).
One international critic described
his abstract work as “futuristic and it is
through a distinctive ordering of lines that
he expresses differing complexities of form
and dimensions”.
Ib used a medium he called “printage”
– a mixture of printing and collage.
Throughout his lifetime, he created an
extraordinary legacy of paintings over a half
century revolving around his life, humanity,
events and personalities.
His works are widely collected by the
who’s who in Malaysia and abroad, and the
pieces range from about RM100,000 to over
a million ringgit.